


Old Oak Doors Lead To Strange Places

by LydiaArgent



Category: Adventure Time, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Bubbline, Crossover, F/F, Femslash, Getting Together, crazy science nerds yes i'm talking about you PB and Carlos, i'm just your problem (because I need you to pay attention to me)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-11
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-02-08 11:22:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1939140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LydiaArgent/pseuds/LydiaArgent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marceline probably should regret opening a strange door and getting sucked into another world. But she really, really doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Oak Doors Lead To Strange Places

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this this afternoon instead of doing any work. You are very welcome.
> 
> Set loosely after the events of Old Oak Doors.

“Marceline, would you please move away from the door?”

Marceline sighs and gives the top of the door two more kicks that land with solid, satisfying thunks before floating toward the ground on what should be the other side of the door.

“Thank you.”

Marceline can see PB through the non-existent door, attaching glistening green wires to seemingly thin air, her candy pink forehead scrunched in concentration. She pulls a small bat face before hovering around a patch of thin air until the old oak door was back in sight. 

“If this is some door lord crap again, I am out of here.”

Princess Bubblegum is distracted by the screens in front of her. “The signature's not consistent with a door created by a door lord.” She absentmindedly taps a few keys and keeps glancing up at the door.

“You have any better idea what would make a huge door just appear in the middle of a field? You're supposed to be some brilliant scientist, right?”

Princess Bubblegum glares over her shoulder and Marceline grins sharply. 

“I'm working on it – why are you even here?” She turns back to her instruments, and that is just not acceptable.

“I'm here because I, unlike some pink-headed people, know how to find out what's behind a mysterious door.” She floats quickly past Princess Bubblegum, making sure to knock into her shoulder, and grabs the handle of the old oak door. 

She can hear Princess Bubblegum running up behind her, calling her name, but it sounds very far away and a bright light shines from the door and draws her in.

 

***

Marceline comes to groaning and smoking gently. The groan transitions quickly to the unholy offspring of a hiss and a shriek and she's diving across the desert sand for the nearest source of shade. 

She's pretty sure she didn't mean to pass out in a desert. She remembers wanting to piss off PB, and she remembers a door and a light, and then there's nothing. There's no door between her and the distant, hazy horizon. Marceline is definitely not worried, she is annoyed. She manages to float a few feet from the ground, pulling herself together and making sure her axe is still strapped to her back, and spots a familiar bright pink laying on the ground at the edge of the strip of shade. 

“Bonnibel!” She takes off toward her, air snapping and bass dragging behind her, stopping to hover over the still figure. 

“Please don't call me that.”

Marceline lets out a huge breath. “Update: that door thing is gone and we're in a weird desert.”

“And whose fault is that?” Princess Bubblegum pulls herself up to sit, muttering “Ow, ow, ow” under her breath. Marceline feels her fists clench.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

Bubblegum looks up at her, exasperation all over her face. “You...Marceline! You opened spatially displaced door when you had no idea where it led!”

“It's not like I was planning on walking through it!”

Bubblegum is shaking her head in disbelief where it rests in her hands. Marceline is getting ready to keep picking this fight when she realizes that Bubblegum hasn't stood up yet. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Bubblegum looks up at that, confused but her expression growing warm with amusement. Marceline crosses her arms over her chest and stares back.

“Yes, I think I'm relatively unharmed.” She reaches out a hand to Marceline, who looks suspicious as she grabs Princess Bubblegum's (somewhat sticky) pink hand and helps to pull her to her feet. “I propose we don't do that again.”

“I can get down with that plan. So let's figure out where the heck--” Marceline's panic has left her, and she's noticing whispering voices at the edge of hearing. Her eyes meet Bubblegum's, and they both turn to look behind them at the conveniently shady forest on the edge of a desert.

_your teeth look so sharp Marceline! and your boots are so fetching. will you come and make music with us?_

The Princess's eyes go wide, and she slowly picks up her pink cylindrical pack from the ground. “Let's go around the forest.” She pulls out a parasol and passes it to Marceline, neither taking their eyes off of the trees. The back away into the sunlight, putting serious space between them and the trees before setting out around the forest's edge. If they walk and float faster than usual, there are very few beings out in the sand wastes to see them.

***

They wander across the sands, creepy forest to their right and desert stretching out to their left. Marceline plucks at the strings of her bass and hums to herself as they go. She doesn't quite know what to do with PB nodding her head in time with the beat and idly picking sand out of her hair, when she should be rolling her eyes or asking in a clipped voice if “This is really the appropriate time.”

“Why aren't you pissed at me?”

“Oh, don't worry, I am – I didn't hit my head quite that hard.”

“Then why aren't you acting pissed at me, miss princess?”

She sighs. “Apart from the fact that it wouldn't help much of anything at the moment? I'm fairly certain that I would have ended up opening the door myself. Though I would have taken significantly more safety precautions. Or any at all,” she adds with a hint of menace, before Marceline gets a chance to point and yell “Hah!”

“Oh yeah, like you could have prevented an ominous light force sucking you through the door. I'm from the nightosphere babe, and you do not get in the way of ominous light forces.”

“I'll have you know that I've made a number of advances in quasi-dimensional shielding technology – hey! A road!”

They hurry to the strip of black cutting through the beige landscape. They stand to each other in the middle of the smooth road, and see the shape of buildings not too far away. 

“Well, where there's buildings, there's people, or at least hopefully not mutants who want to eat us for lunch,” Marceline says brightly. They set off down the road, and Bubblegum has to dive off to the side when a car nearly mows them down.

“Don't say a thing,” Bubblegum warns as she picks herself up off the ground and fixes her crooked crown, and Marceline starts to laugh.

It doesn't take them much longer to reach a sign that reads “Welcome to Night Vale,” which doesn't mean much to either of them.

*~*~*

“Listeners, we have reports coming in of two new women in our community! Their names are Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the vampire queen, and I encourage you to show the respect you would show to any other royalty. Not the kind of respect shown with pitchforks and guillotines. The other kind.

If you see them around town, be sure to give them a warm Night Vale welcome.”

~~~~

“Dear listeners, we have further reports on our new visitors. They hail from the Land of Ooo, which I have not heard of before. And as I've shared with you, I have traveled extensively. The Land of Ooo is evidently on earth, which should put to rest the flying rumors that these women are, in fact, aliens on a reconnaissance mission for rare minerals and the Moonlight All-Night Diner's mixed berry pie recipe. And really everyone, just because someone is made of candy does not make that person an alien. Get a grip.

They arrived this morning through an old oak door – whether this was one of the Old Oak Doors sealed during the eviction of Strexcorp is unclear and troubling.”

~~~~

“Welcome back, listeners, from that word from our sponsors. Your fortitude is to be commended.

I ducked out of the studio during our break to see if I could get a quick interview with our new visitors, only to find that my dear Carlos had beaten me to it! He and Princess Bubblegum, who is apparently an impressive scientist as well, were deep in conversation several safe meters away from the Shape in Grove Park. I caught a few phrases like “uncoupled space-time fissure”, “distal harmonic resonance”, and a stammered “Not my...girlfriend, not exactly,” so I tactfully decided to leave them to their science talk and interview the stylish vampire queen who was hovering nearby. We had an excellent chat about weather and her adventures at home! I was very interested to hear more about a Mushroom War.

That is, until Carlos evidently got curious about the composition of Princess Bubblegum's impressive hair, and reached out a hand to sample a piece.

Listeners, if you have a phobia of bats, wolves, creatures with large teeth, or enraged not-girlfriends, I strongly advise you to avoid doing anything to upset Marceline, in particular posing some kind of threat to Princess Bubblegum. 

I also advise you to get yourself some professional assistance, because I'm not sure how you can make it through this world with any of those particular phobias.

Not to worry, dear listeners! Carlos is fine; Marceline seems to be all bark and minimal bite when it comes to being a touch possessive.”

*~*~*

“I'm not – what! Possessive! Whatever!” Marceline turns away from Princess Bubblegum to glare violently at the radio. Her arms are crossed tightly and her cheeks are bright pink, and she could do something appallingly rude and somewhat violent at any minute. Bubblegum bites down on a smile and takes off her borrowed lab goggles and stands up from the lab bench.

“Carlos, would you mind keeping an eye on these readings for me, and give me a shout if they stabilize? If I can get a n-dimensional lock on our position, I will be able to transport us back.”

“No problem Princess,” He gives her a wink, and moves to the tangle of wires and small screens that seem to be held together by taffy.

Princess Bubblegum taps Marceline on her ankle. “Could we maybe talk, just for a minute?” Marceline stays out of reach, staring hard at the ceiling. “Please?” She rests her hand on the red boot in what she hopes in a reassuring way.

“Oh, she can say please, this is new,” Marceline gripes, before floating lower and allowing herself to be led by the hand over piles of cables and ticking green orbs out to the hallway. 

“Marceline, it's okay if you... ever get worried about me.”

“Ugh, I don't worry about you! I worry about you being so annoying I throw up all the red I've eaten!”

“Well I guess that was my mistake.” Princess Bubblegum feels angry and sort of hopeless. It must show on her face more than she'd intended, because Marceline's glare breaks into something a bit like fear; a little bit desperate.

“Well, maybe. Sometimes. When weird extinct humans are trying to rip your head off, and I think that merits some concer--”

Princess Bubblegum comes to a decision to cut Marceline's building rant off by decisively leaning in and kissing her cheek. She stays close and waits, rather admiring the dazed look on Marceline's face, until Marceline runs a hand into her hair and kisses her full on the lips. She finds herself reaching out when Marceline pulls back after several thrilling seconds.

“This doesn't make you any less stuck up.” Marceline sounds a little bit breathless, and Princess Bubblegum smiles wide and takes her hand.

“I know. Let's get home.”


End file.
